Approaches to Conflict Management

“Don’t confuse conflict with indecision, stress, disagreement, or other common experiences that may cause, or be caused by conflict.”

- Anonymous






"The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph"

-Thomas Paine






“…the stage when people have got know to each other a bit and norms of conduct have been established and there is agreement of kind about what the purpose of the group is. This stage is marked by conflict and a “struggle for power”... The stage of conflict is absolutely necessary if the group is to be more than a “joining of forces” or “federation”, and if it is to generate some new quality that wasn’t there before; conflict is necessary to bring out the different conceptions that have hitherto lain dormant…”

- Stanford & Roak






Table of Contents

Introduction 3

What Is Conflict? 4
Reasons for Conflict 5

Conflict Management 6
Conflict and Unit Performance 6
Conflict Resolution Techniques 7
Conflict Simulation Techniques 7

Case Study 8

Conflict Style Inventory 10
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument 11
Two-dimensional Model of Conflict-handling Behavior 12
Kraybill Conflict Style Inventory 13
Sample Test 13

The Universal Approach To Handling Conflict 16
The Right Attitude 16
The Right Skills 17
Basic Steps to Handle Conflict 17

Bibliography 19











Introduction

“A conflict exists when two people wish to carry out acts which are mutually inconsistent. They may both want to do the same thing, such as eat the same apple, or they may want to do different things where the different things are mutually incompatible, such as when they both want to stay together but one wants to go to the cinema and the other to stay at home. A conflict is resolved when some mutually compatible set of actions is worked out. The definition of conflict can be extended from individuals to groups (such as states or nations), and more than two parties can be involved in... [continues]

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